Flight Price Scraper - Live Fares & Cheap Dates

Scrape Skyscanner-style flight fare prices by route and date and return clean, price-comparison rows with prices, bestPrice, cheapestSource, provider details, schedule fields, segment details, baggage notes, and booking links.

This Actor is built for fare-alert products, travel newsletters, route-price monitoring, OTA research, and internal travel-price audits. It uses Skyscanner's public web result API through Chrome TLS impersonation, not browser automation.

What it does

• Searches one-way or round-trip fares for a route and date.
• Returns one row per fare or merged itinerary.
• Supports Skyscanner web flight results with no API key.
• Returns provider/OTA quotes inside prices and providerDetails.
• Supports Ryanair live fare-calendar prices as an optional secondary source.
• Supports optional Travelpayouts cached fare rows when you provide travelpayoutsToken.
• Can return exact-date fares or cheap-date rows across the departure month.
• Outputs a competitor-friendly schema: prices, bestPrice, cheapestSource, sourcesFound, segments, baggage, and links.
• Saves results to the default Apify dataset for JSON, CSV, Excel, XML, API, Zapier, and Make.com exports.

Sources

Source	Status	Notes
Skyscanner	Live, no token	Uses Skyscanner's public web result API through curl_cffi Chrome impersonation. Best default source.
Ryanair	Live, no token	Uses Ryanair's public fare-finder JSON endpoint. Useful secondary source for Ryanair-served routes.
Travelpayouts	Optional token	Uses cached fare-search prices from Travelpayouts/Aviasales. Requires your API token.

Important: Skyscanner is protected by PerimeterX. Plain curl is blocked. This Actor uses curl_cffi to send Chrome-shaped TLS/HTTP requests. If Skyscanner changes its bot controls, the adapter may need updating.

Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
origin	string	STN	Origin airport IATA code.
destination	string	DUB	Destination airport IATA code.
departDate	string	2026-07-15	Departure date in YYYY-MM-DD format.
returnDate	string	-	Optional return date. Omit for one-way.
adults	integer	1	Adult passenger count.
teens	integer	0	Teen passenger count.
children	integer	0	Child passenger count.
infants	integer	0	Infant passenger count.
cabinClass	string	ECONOMY	ECONOMY, PREMIUM_ECONOMY, BUSINESS, or FIRST. Ryanair only supports economy.
currency	string	GBP	Three-letter ISO currency code.
sources	string[]	["skyscanner"]	Sources to query: skyscanner, ryanair, travelpayouts.
searchMode	string	exactDate	exactDate or departureMonth.
maxFlights	integer	50	Maximum rows saved after merge and sorting.
travelpayoutsToken	string	-	Required only when using travelpayouts.
skyscannerMarket	string	UK	Skyscanner market header, such as UK or US.
skyscannerLocale	string	en-GB	Skyscanner locale header, such as en-GB or en-US.
skyscannerOriginEntityId	string	-	Optional override if Skyscanner route entity resolution fails.
skyscannerDestinationEntityId	string	-	Optional override if Skyscanner route entity resolution fails.
includeRawData	boolean	false	Attach raw source fragments for debugging.
proxy	object	disabled	Optional Apify Proxy settings.

Examples

One-way Skyscanner search

{
  "origin": "LAX",
  "destination": "JFK",
  "departDate": "2026-07-15",
  "currency": "USD",
  "skyscannerMarket": "US",
  "skyscannerLocale": "en-US",
  "sources": ["skyscanner"],
  "maxFlights": 20
}

Skyscanner plus Ryanair

{
  "origin": "STN",
  "destination": "DUB",
  "departDate": "2026-07-15",
  "currency": "GBP",
  "sources": ["skyscanner", "ryanair"],
  "maxFlights": 50
}

Add Travelpayouts cached fares

{
  "origin": "LAX",
  "destination": "JFK",
  "departDate": "2026-07-15",
  "currency": "USD",
  "sources": ["skyscanner", "travelpayouts"],
  "travelpayoutsToken": "YOUR_TOKEN",
  "maxFlights": 50
}

Output

Each dataset item is a flat JSON record:

{
  "prices": {
    "skyscanner:Kiwi.com": 19.26,
    "skyscanner:Expedia": 31.99,
    "skyscanner": 19.26
  },
  "bestPrice": 19.26,
  "cheapestSource": "skyscanner:Kiwi.com",
  "sourcesFound": ["skyscanner"],
  "currency": "GBP",
  "airline": "Ryanair",
  "departTime": "2026-07-15T06:30:00",
  "arriveTime": "2026-07-15T07:50:00",
  "duration": "1h 20m",
  "stops": 0,
  "from": {
    "airport": "STN"
  },
  "to": {
    "airport": "DUB"
  },
  "departDate": "2026-07-15",
  "segments": [
    {
      "airline": "Ryanair",
      "from": "STN",
      "to": "DUB",
      "departure": "2026-07-15T06:30:00",
      "arrival": "2026-07-15T07:50:00",
      "duration": "1h 20m",
      "cabinClass": "ECONOMY"
    }
  ],
  "baggage": {
    "includedPersonalItem": 1,
    "note": "Ryanair basic fare normally includes one small personal bag only. Ancillary baggage prices are not included."
  },
  "isSelfTransfer": false,
  "links": {
    "skyscanner": "https://www.skyscanner.net/transport_deeplink/..."
  },
  "providerDetails": [
    {
      "id": "skyp",
      "name": "Kiwi.com",
      "price": 19.26,
      "rating": 4,
      "feedbackCount": 11462
    }
  ],
  "passengerCount": 1,
  "cabinClass": "ECONOMY",
  "routeType": "oneWay",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-06-01T00:00:00.000Z"
}

Use cases

• Build Skyscanner-style fare comparison datasets.
• Build fare alerts for specific routes.
• Monitor provider/OTA price differences.
• Monitor Ryanair price changes by day as a secondary source.
• Feed a cheap-flight newsletter or deal bot.
• Compare direct airline prices against cached metasearch prices.
• Export fare history to a warehouse for route analytics.
• Audit whether a route is cheaper on exact dates or nearby dates.

Performance

The Skyscanner source usually performs one route-page request plus one web-unified-search request. Browser automation is not used, but Chrome TLS impersonation is required.

Recommended launch pricing:

• Actor start: $0.00005
• Result event: $0.0025 per saved dataset row ($2.50 / 1,000 results)

Only successful writes to the default dataset should be charged. Failed source requests, warnings, and skipped unavailable fares should not be charged.

Limitations

• Skyscanner entity resolution works from the public route page for normal airport codes. If it fails, provide skyscannerOriginEntityId and skyscannerDestinationEntityId.
• Ryanair fare-calendar rows are cheapest-per-day fares, not a complete list of every flight.
• Travelpayouts requires a token and returns cached fare-search data.
• Wizz Air and similar low-cost carriers use stronger anti-bot controls; add them as separate adapters once a stable replayable request is captured.
• This Actor does not book flights or guarantee final checkout price. Airlines can add bags, seats, payment fees, and regional surcharges at checkout.

API example

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/YOUR_USERNAME~flight-prices-fares-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "origin": "LAX",
    "destination": "JFK",
    "departDate": "2026-07-15",
    "currency": "USD",
    "skyscannerMarket": "US",
    "skyscannerLocale": "en-US",
    "sources": ["skyscanner"],
    "maxFlights": 20
  }'